As part of our ongoing coverage of films in the lead-up to the Oscar Bake-off on January 11, we highlight the VFX of Barry Jenkins Lion King prequel Mufasa: The Lion King. MPC, a Technicolor Group company, has a long history of bringing to life unforgettable characters and crafting classic worlds, balancing animation with VFX. From The Jungle Book to Maleficent and The Lion King, MPCs has helped contribute to many new chapters in VFX and cinematic expression. This year, MPCs team brought Disneys African savannah to life in Mufasa: The Lion King. The film was directed by Barry Jenkins, the Production VFX Supervisor was Adam Valdez, and Animation Supervisor was Daniel Fotheringham. MPCs VFX Supervisor was Audrey Ferrara, and VFX Producer was Georgie Duncan. A team of over 1,700 artists, production crew, and technologists at MPC crafted the VFX for Mufasa: The Lion King. To create a blueprint for our final animation our motion capture shoot involved multiple performers playing Mufasa, Sarabi, Taka, Rafiki and even Zazu says Production VFX Supervisor Adam Valdez. They wore motion capture suits, and through a process we call QuadCap, their movements were mapped onto digital lion characters. This technology aligned the performers head and spine movements to the lions head and neck, their legs to the lions front legs, and simulated the lions back legs and hips to follow. Barry could then watch a live feed of the lions on screen through Unreal Engine, allowing him to give real-time performance and camera notes to the actors and DP. Within Unreal Engine, a total of 12680 on-stage takes were shot using the VCam and Motion Capture systems, all of which produced both a recorded and rendered artifact. If you were to play all captured takes one after the other, it would take just under 200 hours, or just over 8 days, to watch them all. A total of 7399 live motion capture and Quad Cap performances were captured throughout the shoot.We added facial expressions and lip sync to enhance characters performances. says Animation Supervisor Dan Fotheringham, then Barry could walk through the recorded sequence in VR making notes before we could wrap it up to be shot virtually. Performances with complex animal mechanics, like fighting or leaping were then integrated into the Quadcap performances and into the virtual sets, creating a complete master scene that Barry and James could shoot from any angle. This innovative blending of live-action filmmaking techniques and visual effects became a defining feature of the entire production. Building Africas Wild MajestyTo authentically recreate the African savannah, MPCs Environment team embarked on scouting trips across the continent, gathering invaluable references for the films flora, fauna, and landscapes. Armed with photogrammetry scans and painstaking hand-sculpting techniques, the team meticulously built the world of Mufasa, crafting plains, canyons, and forests down to the finest detail, including individual rocks and blades of grass.A crucial step in the process was optimizing the rendering of the vast environments. To handle the scale of these huge environments, the team had to develop new tools to increase efficiency. The landscapes became integral to telling Mufasas journey, serving as much a geographic as a spiritual backdrop. The result is a sprawling digital recreation of Africa spanning 107 square milesthe size of Salt Lake City, Utah. Custom scattering tools were used to populate rivers, trees, and plants in ways that mimicked the complexity of natural ecosystems. These breathtaking environments serve as both a stage and a character, guiding Mufasa on his epic journey. Breathing Life Into the Animal KingdomMPCs acclaimed Character Lab took the lead in bringing over 118 unique animals to life, including beloved characters like Mufasa, Scar, Pumbaa, Timon, and Rafiki. Each character was constructed from the ground up, beginning with an anatomically accurate bone and muscle structure. From there, the team used their proprietary grooming system, Loma, to create lifelike fur with unparalleled detail and realism.The challenge with fur is not just making it look realistic, but ensuring it moves and reacts naturally, says MPCs Character Supervisor. This was achieved through a combination of advanced simulation techniques and meticulous fine-tuning. Each lion had over 30,000,000 hairs to achieve the realistic look of fur. Mufasas mane alone had 16,995,454 hair curves. Mufasa has 600,000 hairs on his ears, 6.2 million hairs on his legs, and 9 million hairs covering the middle portion of his body. Simulating realistic lion manes for the assembled loins required 40,000 80,000 dynamic curves per character, with custom presets for different weather and physical conditions. Long shots took up to a week per iteration, with final fur caches exceeding 800 GB.To capture the emotional subtleties of the characters, animators studied hours of real animal footage. Muscle movement, posture, and even subtle shifts in expression were analyzed and replicated to ensure authenticity. Animators often acted out expressions themselves, using their performances to infuse each character with genuine emotion. This hybrid of research and personal creativity resulted in characters that feel as lifelike and emotionally resonant as their real-world counterparts. This shot of Rafiki making a snow angel required simulating over 620 million snow particles. Dynamic Elements: Simulating Natures ForcesMPCs FX team brought the dynamic forces of nature into the mix, simulating wind, rain, snow, and fire to create a fully immersive world. The FX work was key to grounding the characters in their environment, says Ferrara. Whether it was the golden light filtering through the savannah or a storm rolling across the plains, every element was designed to integrate into the photoreal aesthetic. CG lighters and compositors worked meticulously to perfect the films lighting and mood, ensuring every shot radiated authenticity. Pushing Boundaries in Animation and VFXA team of up to 88 artists across London, Montreal, and Bengaluru brought to life 77 digital sets, including the iconic Pride Rock and new locations Mountains of the Moon and the Tree of Life. Artists built a library of 5,790 assets, including trees, plants, and grass species, which are all featured in the film. The storage requirements for the film reached 25 petabytes which is the equivalent storage of 5.6 million DVDs. Rendering the film in final quality took 150M hours. It would take a single computer 17,123 years to complete. The fully digital world brims with depth, vivid detail, and a cinematic scale that does justice to the legacy of the original film. From its sweeping landscapes to its intricately animated characters, MPCs work on Mufasa: The Lion King represents another achievement in visual 3D animated storytelling.